I have a Nikon D300 and SB-800 speedlight. When I shot photos today, I got one of two options: background was exposed decent but the people were too dark [LEFT PHOTO], or the people were exposed better but the background was washed out [RIGHT PHOTO]. I had speedlight set on TTL.

What is recommended for settings? Should I set camera on Manual setting [was on P in these photos] and then adjust speedight? I'm just looking for balanced backgrounds and subjects. I can fix/combine photos in Photoshop, but really don't want to do this for every single photo.

Thanks!

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6/30/2010 7:09:44 PM

Celeste McWilliams

Also, should I set exposure for full frame or center-weighted?

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7/1/2010 9:14:13 PM

Jon Close

I don't know why the 2nd with flash in P mode didn't use the same ambient exposure (1/250 and f/20) as the first. Looking at the D300 manual, p. 172, there are 2 iTTL settings. Maybe you've selected "standard iTTL flash" where "brightness of the background is not taken into account." What you want instead is "iTTL balanced fill flash".

Better yet, set the D300/SB800 for FP High Speed Sync (Auto FP, p. 288 in the D300 manual, p. 60 in the SB800's). Then then you can use a shutter speed higher than 1/250 with the flash so that you can use f/11 or f/8 without the washing out the sky.